We are happy to welcome Hannah Johnston, our summer student from 2016, back to Eden Nuclear and Environment as a Consultant. Hannah is re-joining the team upon graduating from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Ecological and Environmental Sciences. Hannah studied a wide range of topics at university including environmental pollution, atmospheric modelling, hydrology and project management. In her final year Hannah specialised in environmental geochemistry and she completed her thesis as a part of the Long-Lived Radionuclides in the Surface Environment (LO-RISE) research project. Her work focused on the fate of Sellafield derived 14C in the coastal environments surrounding the Solway Firth. Hannah will be supporting a range of projects concerned with environmental and waste management issues.

We are also pleased to welcome Nick Collier to the Eden Nuclear and Environment team as a Principal Consultant. Nick joined us from the Immobilisation Science Laboratory at The University of Sheffield, where he had responsibilities for developing cementitious matrices for use in Deep Borehole Disposal of high-level waste and spent fuel. Prior to this Nick was a Senior Research Technologist in the Immobilisation Science and Technology team at the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), where he had several roles assessing and developing existing and novel intermediate level waste encapsulation/immobilisation processes. He also had strategic roles at NNL involved in waste management and decommissioning, and was an NNL Research Fellow. His academic background is in cementation of radioactive waste, but he is also a chartered mechanical engineer (IMechE), and through this has previous extensive project engineering and management experience. His technical work has included both desk-based and experimental studies relating to radioactive waste immobilisation and disposal.

September 2017

We’ve moved!

We have successfully moved into our new office on Eden Business Park, Penrith. Our new office suite is environmentally sound and easily accessible from Penrith railway station. This, and our multiple meeting spaces, makes us ready and pleased to welcome clients to our new premises.

Some photos from the move are included below. We hope to welcome you to our new office soon!

Packing up.

Moving in.

Back to work.

July 2017

Eden Nuclear and Environment Ltd are growing and moving!We have outgrown our current office due to the continued expansion of the business and are delighted to announce that we are moving to a larger office space at Eden Business Park in Penrith. The new suite is environmentally sound, meeting the highest standards. The office’s location in Penrith is near the train station and the major access roads M6 and A66, making it easily accessible for clients.

The office move is taking place on July 17th and whilst we anticipate a trouble free move, it may be best to contact the moving team on their mobile numbers so that you can be sure to catch them even if they are between offices.

All of the new contact details that you need are listed below and we look forward to welcoming you to the new premises.

Please use our mobile phone numbers to contact us on our moving day, 17th July 2017.

Andy Baker – 07894 545497

Tim Slater – 07711 370872

Paul Tulip – 07736 299066

Amy Jukes – 07803 211812

General queries – 07894 545497

July 2017

A new recruit

We are pleased to welcome Paul Abraitis to the Eden Nuclear and Environment team. Paul joined us from the Nuclear Regulation Group of the Environment Agency (EA), where he had responsibilities for nuclear reactor fleet regulation, generic design assessment of nuclear reactors and nuclear waste assessment. His academic background is in earth and chemical sciences and he has worked in several nuclear roles, including research, regulation and site operations. He has extensive project management experience. His technical work has included in both desk-based and experimental studies relating to radioactive waste immobilisation and disposal.

July 2017

Renewal of RWA certificate

Eden NE is pleased to announce that Principal Consultant Tim Soetens has recently been awarded his new certificate of competence to be a Radioactive Waste Adviser. His new RWA certificate is valid until 2nd May 2022. Tim submitted his portfolio in January 2016.

Eden NE is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a place on LLW Repository Ltd’s framework contract covering the provision of Environmental Safety Case (ESC) support. Eden NE will be the sole supplier for Lot 1 – provision of ESC team support. We will work with LLW Repository Ltd to maintain and develop the next major iteration of the ESC.

Eden NE’s Managing Director, Andy Baker, said ‘We are very pleased to win this contract that recognises our broad expertise in technical management and co-ordination.’

May 2017

Eden NE supports a Good Cause

Eden NE decided to send electronic Christmas cards instead of traditional Christmas cards last year, and to donate £500 to a good cause. Oxfam was the preferred charity as it is globally renowned with 70 years of experience, working and campaigning to alleviate global poverty, along with partners in over 90 countries worldwide.

March 2017

A New Chartered Radiation Protection Professional

Eden NE is pleased to announce that Tim Soetens has recently been registered by the Society of Radiological Protection as a Chartered Radiation Protection Professional.

January 2017

A New Recruit at Eden Nuclear and Environment

We are happy to welcome a new recruit to the Eden Nuclear and Environment team.

Amy Jukes recently joined the Eden Nuclear and Environment team after completing her MSc in Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Management at the University of Birmingham, with Distinction. During the course she studied a range of topics including processing, storage and disposal of nuclear wastes; site decommissioning and environmental management; radiation detection, protection and dosimetry and policy and regulation. She also completed a research project and thesis, where she used atomistic simulations to model defects and fission products in oxide fuels. Amy is looking forward to applying the knowledge gained during her MSc to her work at Eden NE. Prior to studying at Birmingham, Amy achieved an Upper Second Class degree in Natural Sciences, from the University of Cambridge, where she specialised in Physics.

November 2016

A New Associate at Eden Nuclear and Environment

We are happy to welcome a new associate to further broaden the services that we can offer to our clients.

Lynne McTaggart is a consultant with 30 years’ experience leading environment, safety and quality improvements and driving regulatory compliance in the nuclear industry. Lynne has gained extensive working knowledge and experience of operational environment and radiation protection through many years as an RPA on operational and decommissioning sites and through the continued liaison and support to radioactive waste management projects and environmental management systems on various sites in a consultant role. Lynne was responsible for providing cost effective services to sites for radiological instrumentation, radioactive waste processing, radioactive material and waste accountancy, chemistry & radiochemistry, effluent monitoring, environmental monitoring and reporting. Lynne’s recent projects have included:

Technical review and support for the Licencing and Radioactive Substances Permitting Strategy for a Civil Nuclear New Build Company;

Management System and Safety Culture Assessment support for the Periodic Safety Review under Licence/Authorisation Condition 15 for a site constructing submarines for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Programme;

Waste and Environmental liaison and support to ILW decommissioning projects on a Nuclear Licensed site, including delivery of BPEO/BAT studies and Environmental Case Strategy for Care & Maintenance phase.

October 2016

New recruit at Eden Nuclear and Environment

A new recruit has recently started working for Eden Nuclear and Environment.

Mark Tearle is the latest recruit to the Eden Nuclear and Environment team. Mark joins from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) where he was a nuclear safety inspector with responsibilities concerning the safe management of nuclear waste at several Nuclear Licensed Sites including Sellafield and Magnox. Mark has interests across the waste-management lifecycle, and is committed to developing fit-for-purpose and pragmatic solutions for waste-management problems, which are consistent with regulatory expectations and the needs of other stakeholders. He has extensive regulatory and technical management experience.

October 2016

NDA Value framework

Eden NE was contracted by NDA to update the NDA Value Framework, for which the consultation period has now been completed. The NDA Value Framework was first published in January 2016 as part of NDA’s Strategy III, and will be used to support decision-making across the NDA estate.

The NDA commissioned Eden NE to revise and update the existing Value Framework to provide a tool for assessing options across a wide range of applications, including strategic decision making, demonstration of the application of Best Available Techniques and operational facilities. Eden NE also provided content for a short ‘easy to understand’ brochure summarising the key principles of the Value Framework and its application

The published version of the NDA Value Framework is available at this link.

August 2016

Eden NE are leading a consortium of SMEs in one of NDA’s new Direct Research portfolio frameworks

Eden NE are proud to be leading one of the consortia of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to have won a place on one of the NDAs three new framework contracts covering their Direct Research portfolio.

In announcing the successful bidders, the NDA research Manager, Yvonne Morris says “It was very pleasing to see so many SMEs being engaged in the process and being part of successful consortia. Overall we were delighted with the high quality of the submissions and look forward to working with the organisations on our strategic R&D programme”. (LINK)

Our consortium consists of Eden NE, Cavendish Nuclear, DBE TECHNOLOGY GmbH, Golder Associates Ltd, Tradebe Inutec and Project Time and Cost international Ltd. and we will be providing support to the NDAs research programme under the ‘Integrated Waste Management and Site Decommissioning and Remediation’ framework (Lot B).

Eden NE Managing Director, Andy Baker reacted to the award by saying “Eden NE look forward to working with our partners in being able to deliver high quality expert support to the NDAs research programme which will give a vital input to the safe and cost effective decommissioning of the UK’s nuclear legacy and to the remediation of the NDA sites in an environmentally sustainable manner.”

June 2016

Renewal of RWA certificate

Eden NE is pleased to announce that Director Shelly Mobbs has recently received her new certificate of competence to be a Radioactive Waste Adviser. Her new RWA certificate (number W-0000094 ) is valid until 30th April 2021. Shelly submitted her portfolio in December 2014.

June 2016

Strategic Considerations for the Sustainable REmediation of Nuclear Installations

Eden NE has also acted as technical author for a report by the NEA Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning on the experience of nuclear site remediation in NEA countries. It contains twelve case studies and discusses key issues, examples of good practice, and recommendations arising from consideration of these case studies. The report, Nuclear Site Remediation and Restoration during Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations, is also available from NEA at https://www.oecd-nea.org/rwm/pubs/2014/7192-cpd-report.pdf .

June 2016

A New Associate

We are happy to welcome another new associate to further broaden the services that we can offer to our clients.

Dr Ed Henderson is a hydrologist with 27 years’ experience in hydrology and hydrogeology. He has worked in university research, industry and consultancy. Industrial experience includes 14 years in the nuclear industry including 12 years at Sellafield. University research included projects for the European Commission and UK Nirex. Key areas of experience are hydrological monitoring, data collection, analysis and the formulation of conceptual site models of subsurface water movement. He also has experience of surface hydrological monitoring for catchment water balance calculations. Recent project experience has included hydrological monitoring for nuclear waste disposal, monitoring water movement through vadose zones, hydrological assessment for quarrying and risk assessment for drinking water supplies. Dr Henderson is a chartered scientist, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and a member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), the British Hydrological Society and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences.

May 2016

Revised Permit Granted for LLW Repository Ltd.

After the submission of LLW Repository’s 2011 Environmental Safety Case (ESC), Eden NE has continued to provide environmental support to the Low Level Waste Repository in respect of contiunuing updates to the ESC and waste disposal assessments. We are pleased to note that the Environment Agency recently granted LLW Repository Ltd. a revised environmental permit to allow continued disposal at the site. LLW Repository Ltd published a news release here.

We continue to work with the LLW Repository Ltd. in maintaining their ESC and providing support to meet the conditions of their permit.

March 2016

Two New Associates

We are very pleased to welcome two new associates who will be working with us in the future andwho’s expertise will be available to our clients.

Pete Burgess (Radiation Metrology Ltd) has spent his working life since leaving Aberdeen trying to produce equipment and techniques for making the measurement of ionising radiation better, easier, safer and cheaper, as well as teaching people to do the same. During this time, he invented the detection method for the Thermo EPD, one of the world’s leading electronic dosemeters, and performed the first delicensing review for many years for the NII. He has contributed many scientific papers, advised the HSE, EA, NII and ONR, found radium paint contamination, stuck dosemeters on and performed measurements in Ukrainian coal trains for IAEA, worked out why the RBE associated with pi mesons seemed erratic and has worked inside the reactor compartment of a nuclear submarine. He is a regular contributor to SRP meetings, has co-authored many of the NPL GPG series on ionising radiation measurement and chaired the group that produced the SRP guidance on dealing with radioactive legacies.

John Heathcote has a broad background in physical sciences and chemistry and is a hydrogeologist by profession. He has been involved in the nuclear industry for over twenty-five years. John’s first involvement was in the hydrogeological characterisation of the 1000 m thick sedimentary cover sequence for the possible deep waste repository at Sellafield, including evolution of the flow system over glacial cycles. Latterly, John has specialised in the characterisation of radioactively contaminated land and the preparation of environmental safety cases for site closure of a nuclear site. His work at Dounreay over the last ten years or so has seen him cover most things to do with the ground, including the parts of buildings attached to it: contaminated land, waste disposal to ground, groundwater pollution assessment, ground and surface water management. John has developed a number of skills during his career such as : radioactive ground characterisation (radiochemical analysis design, interpretation and statistics); chemically contaminated land; interpretation of complex datasets; hydrogeology and hydrology; and Scottish environmental legislation. He was a member of Dounreay’s top-management technical review committee for nine years up to retirement and has some knowledge of most things nuclear, from criticality control to ventilation requirements. He has even used this knowledge in optimisation of house thermal design. He now seeks to use these skills to support a range of clients dealing with similar issues.

Eden NE is happy to work with Pete and John and to be able to share their expertise with our clients.

March 2016

Supporting Nucleus in Delivering Solutions across the NDA Estate

Eden Nuclear and Environment is a member of the Nucleus group of companies, which has recently been successful in winning Specialist Nuclear Services (SNS) contracts. This framework covers the supply of services across the NDA estate. The Nucleus team offers a range of expertise covering laboratory and desk-based research, waste management and decommissioning, and safety case management, bringing together a unique collaboration of key suppliers and SMEs with an extensive breadth and depth of expert knowledge.

Eden NE has now successfully completed its first project under the SNS framework.

Nucleus Group Wins Framework Contracts for Magnox, acting on behalf of SSA

In February 2015, the Nucleus Group was successful in bidding for various Framework Specialist Nuclear Services Contracts for Magnox Ltd, acting on behalf of the Shared Service Alliance. Eden NE is happy to support the Nucleus Group in the following frameworks:

Tim Slater is the latest recruit to the Eden Nuclear and Environment team since 5th January 2015. Tim has been awarded a PhD in Atmospheric Science at the University of Manchester, where he studied the development of strong winds around midlatitude storms. In pursuit of this goal, Tim modified a state-of-the-art forecasting model and ran idealised and real-data simulations of these storms. During his PhD, Tim presented at both national and international conferences and attended a two-day media-training workshop run by the Natural Environment Research Council. Tim was also co-chair of the Royal Meteorological Society Student Conference 2014. Before attending Manchester, Tim attained a First Class degree in Maths and Physics from the University of Warwick. Since starting, Tim has completed work on site delicensing and radioactive waste disposal across a range of UK nuclear sites and helped to write an Integrated Waste Strategy for Springfields Fuels Ltd.

March 2015

Additional Administrative Support for Eden Nuclear and Environment Ltd.

A warm welcome to Katharine Murray, who joined Eden Nuclear and Environment Ltd. 28th October 2014 as Administrative Support Officer. Katharine will support Eden Nuclear and Environment’s Business Administration function. She has held a variety of positions across a number of business sectors and is currently studying to receive a Higher National Certificate in Business and to reinforce her experience in business management.

January 2015

New Quality Management System for Eden Nuclear and Environment Ltd.

Eden Nuclear and Environment has completely reviewed and updated its Quality Management System during 2014, led by Alex Rankine; not only in order to comply with the requirements of ISO9001, but also to be a more useful tool for the company. The new system is based on ‘issosmart’ developed by Rosewood Keen Management Services.

Following its introduction a new programme of internal audits was initiated followed by an external audit early in September by our new registration company ISOQAR. Evidence given throughout the audit convinced the auditors that plans are in place to manage and maintain the quality system effectively. The audit team concluded that Eden Nuclear and Environment has established and maintained its management system in line with the requirements of the standard and demonstrated to the audit team that it has the ability to systematically achieve the requirements for products and or services within the scope of its activities and in accordance with its policy and objectives. Our registration has been renewed until October 2017, with a surveillance audit planned to take place in July 2015.

January 2015

Sellafield Environmental Framework

We have led or contributed to a significant number of projects let under the Sellafield Ltd environmental services framework. In particular we have established an expertise in the provision of Environmental Cases and advice relating to regulatory requirements under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act and the Euratom Treaty.

Working in association with our partners, Golder Associates and WRc, we have delivered reviews of local beach use, coastal particles analysis, provision of Environmental Impact Assessments and associated Environmental Statements, advice relating to regulatory regimes and Permitting, options for the disposal of Low Level Wastes and the transfer of materials enabling decommissioning of older facilities on site.

Eden NE has completed an environmental risk and liability assessment of 18,548 dwellings and c6million m2 of land. Eden NE used advanced technologies and skills to map housing related assets and environmental hazards to allow assessment and profiling of key risks and the calculation of financial liability.

The approach assessed over 100 spatial datasets and evaluated contaminated land, flooding, subsidence, natural hazards and asbestos containing materials for every individual asset, calculated the risks and the financial liability associated with the risks. The core work was subsequently extended to include an assessment of over 36 parcels of additional land which were allocated for the specific purpose of housing development. The assessment included a more enhanced constraints assessment and financial evaluation based on housing development.

The work was undertaken on time within 12 weeks and within the Council budget. The work undertaken emphasises Eden NE’s skills in environmental data, risk modelling, asset management and liability assessment.

ENRMF Permit Application

(c) Augean plc

Eden NE has supported the Radioactive Services Division of Augean PLC in the development of the East Northants Resource Management Facility since 2012. Initially providing input to the planning enquiry and then producing an Environmental Safety Case (ESC) to support revision of a Permit for the receipt and disposal of low level radioactive waste disposal at the site. An ESC is a requirement of the Environment Agency that shows how a near-surface facility for solid radioactive waste disposal meets their requirement that people and the environment are protected from the hazards associated with disposals to the facility. The assessments undertaken to support the ESC cover operational and post-closure periods and future development of the site.

Mineralogical Magazine Publications

A series of papers have recently been published in Mineralogical Magazine by Eden staff. Shelly Mobbs, Andy Baker and Duncan Jackson have co-authored the following papers, which were the proceedings from a conference on the scientific and technological underpinning of the geological disposal of radioactive waste, held in Loughborough in October 2012:

S. Mobbs. Planning to ‘remember to forget’?

A. Baker and R. Cummings. Research in support of the 2011 environmental safety case for the Low Level Waste Repository

They can all be downloaded from the Mineralogical Society website here.

Featured article in the Journal of Radiological Protection

A paper co-authored by Eden NE radiological expert Shelly Mobbs has been selected to be a featured article on the IOP Publishing site after reaching the top five downloaded publications of 2011*. The paper provides a review of the basis for current radiological risk estimates and can be downloaded here.

On behalf of the Safety Directors’ Forum, Duncan Jackson has recently been involved in updating the Code of Practice for the Clearance and Exemption Working Group. This is being undertaken in response to a recent revision of the Exemption Orders by DECC following changes to radioactive substances regulation in England and Wales. Duncan was also recently a technical author for the updated Code of Practice for Best Available Techniques published by the Safety Directors’ Forum. More information on the Clearance and Exemption Working Group can be found here.